At last, Pixar has revealed its first big marketing materials for Toy Story 4, which includes a brief teaser trailer, several character posters, and more recently a “teaser trailer reaction” video that pokes self-aware fun at the franchise in almost parody form.

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Overlord is an original horror action-war movie released after Halloween. And they say Hollywood isn’t full of surprises. It’s just me and Will Ashton reviewing films this week, which include The Grinch, the latest adaptation of the classic Dr. Seuss holiday story, this time made by Illumination. There’s also Widows, a heist ensemble from director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and starring a packed cast led by Viola Davis. We talk about Outlaw King, a new war epic from Netflix starring Chris Pine. And Will gives his thoughts on The Front Runner, starring Hugh Jackman and covering the Gary Hart political scandal from the late 1980s.

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We tend to be mostly polite and civil during episodes of Cinemaholics, but this is an outlier of an episode. Things got heated during our discussion of Bohemian Rhapsody, the new biopic about Freddie Mercury and the band Queen during their rise to fame in the 70s and 80s. Long story short, I enjoyed the film but wished it could have been a masterpiece deserving of Mercury’s legacy. Will and Maveryke had far larger issues, making for a fascinating discussion around how films depict homosexuality, especially regarding true-life stories.

As you can imagine, though, things loosened up quite a bit as we got into our other reviews, to the point where we were laughing almost too much for me keep the conversation coherent during editing. We hope you enjoy our discussions around Suspiria, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Haunting of Hill House, Wildlife, and Boy Erased.

Next week: We need your help deciding which film to do for our featured review. The choices include The Girl in the Spider’s Web, Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch, and Overlord. You can also become a patron and vote your decision in our weekly Patreon poll.

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Late Tuesday night, after 32 years, Ed Catmull announced he would be retiring at the end of this year. This is not sad news, though—it’s a chance to give Pixar a new future.

I’m late on this news because I was out of town and thus not blogging when the announcement broke (and somewhat silently from what I can tell). I didn’t even here about Catmull’s retirement until a day after everyone else, and I’ve been stewing in my thoughts ever since.

In the cited piece above, Watercutter details how Catmull’s retirement is “an opportunity, not a loss.” And of course, Catmull himself claimed in his 2015 book Creativity Inc. that it was always his goal to leave Pixar with a strong legacy of lasting leadership (hence, Catmull is staying on as advisor through next July). It’s very Pixar-esque to look at a problem as an opportunity, and for now, I share in the optimism painting this upcoming era, but for a very different reason than even I expected.

It’s looking like Pixar is reclaiming its independence from Disney, albeit one promotion/departure at a time.

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I went on vacation recently and have been slow to posting, so apologies on the wait. Here are the latest two episodes of Cinemaholics, which we did manage to record while I was out of town (apologies for not-as-good audio for Halloween in particular).

First up above is our Halloween episode, where Will Ashton and I debated the latest sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. Next up, Will and I had a thoughtful discussion about Mid90s, the new A24 film directed and written by Jonah Hill. Other films and shows we talked about include The Hate U Give, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Johnny English Strikes Again, Beautiful Boy, “Red Dead Redemption 2,” and plenty more.

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First Man has just landed in theaters, but not to a strong box office. The prestige picture from Oscar-favorite Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy captures the stoic, yet daredevil life of Neil Armstrong from his early days as an X-15 pilot to becoming the first man to walk on the moon. On the latest Cinemaholics, we discuss the film’s contribution to the moon landing legacy and the craft behind turning that fateful Apollo 11 mission into something truly traumatic and realistic, perfect for IMAX.

Next week: We’re watching Halloween and The Hate U Give. Let us know which film you think we should feature review, or if we should do another Double Feature. Plus, let us know which new films or TV shows you want us to mini review in the comments below. You can also become a patron and vote your decision in our weekly Patreon poll.

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It’s finally happened. T.J. Wolsos of PixarPost and I have collaborated on a project. Above, you’ll hear our full conversation on all things Pixar, mostly centering around the feeling that the animation studio’s best days are in the past. T.J. and I have a hearty debate and discussion about whether or not this is really true, and if it is, what caused the change (or “evolution” as T.J. aptly points out).

Is Pixar making too many sequels? Did Disney cause all of this? Has Disney animation surpassed Pixar? And what movies are coming next from the Emeryville campus? We answer these questions and tons more, plus we read your tweets and comments to parse out how everyone else feels about the subject. This is one podcast episode you Pixar fans don’t want to miss.